Many find travelling stressful, but it needn’t be. Once you have been to a few places, you can start to perfect your approach, making travelling less of a worry and much more enjoyable overall. These particular tips relate mostly to foreign travel by plane, but some may also be relevant to travel within your own country or via other modes of transport. In no particular order, see below a list of my favourite travel tips! ✈️

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Luggage & Packing

• If you are going on a weekend trip or a shorter break (less than a week), pack cabin luggage only. Not only is this cheaper, but it will also save you time by you not having to wait at the other end for your bag to show up on the luggage carousel. This also saves a nerve-wracking wait to find out if your luggage has even made it to your destination or not!
• If your trip is for a longer duration (a week or more), take a hefty sized suitcase with you to check into the hold, but make sure to pack all your essentials for at least a couple of nights in your hand luggage. This includes things like medication, changes of underwear, basic toiletries, and anything else that you cannot foresee going a couple of days without. This will save you some time and stress should your hold suitcase not reach your destination in time or worse, get completely lost in transit.
• Do not take anything flashy or expensive with you on your travels. Thieves and opportunists are everywhere, and like to target tourists in particular. Take the most basic and practical bags/luggage that you can, and leave anything instantly recognisable as a luxury or expensive brand at home. Items like luxury branded watches and precious jewellery are a big no-no for me.
• Do not pack more clothes than you need. Clothes can take up a lot of precious bag space. Roll up the clothes that you do take with you, as this can save both bag space and ensure that your clothes do not get creased as easily as if they were folded.
• If you are going to a hot country, take some mosquito repellent and bite relief with you. Bites can mar a great holiday and generally make one irritable and even miserable. If you are sure that you can get some of this for a reasonable price at your destination however, then there is no need to take up precious bag space by packing it.
• The same as the above tip but for sunscreen – pack this if you must, but if it is available for a decent price at your destination, you may be better of buying it there.

Safety & Security

• Take copies of your passport and any other important travel documents, and keep them somewhere separate from the originals when you travel. Should you lose the originals, hopefully you will still have the copies, which may count for something in an emergency.
• Bring a written list, on a piece of paper, of your emergency contact numbers. You never know when you may need this – you could lose your phone (or it gets stolen), run out of phone battery, or your phone breaks unexpectedly. Better safe than sorry.
• If you wish to be super careful, store your credit/debit cards in a faraday cage wallet. These block RFID signals, which fraudsters can use covertly to scan your cards and steal your personal information.
• Always keep your wits about you, especially if you are travelling solo. Plan your excursions, and recognise which areas may be out of bounds due to a bad reputation or tangible risk. I always try to stay as central and as in-public as possible if I am on a city break for example. It tends to be city or resort outskirts which can be no-go areas more than anywhere else, and there is a lot to be said for safety in numbers.

Airport & Hotel

• Do not get overly side-tracked by airport shops. Just don’t do it. Happened to me once, nearly missed my flight, never again! Set an alarm to head to your gate around the expected time if needs be.
• Check if the hotel/property that you are staying at provides toiletries or not. If it does, you do not need to pack your own, saving on some bag space.
• Ask your hotel in advance for anything that you wish to request for your stay there. For example, I like my baths, so I often request a bath tub, if this is possible, for any of my hotel stays. Usually they are obliging, if this is within their capacity. You don’t ask you don’t get, after all!
• Treat the journey, especially if you are at an airport, as part of the holiday! This may require a mindset shift, but in essence you want to see it as less of a chore and more as part of the overall experience. So why not treat yourself at the shops, or grab a tasty meal?

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